In case you’re not keeping up (gee….), that’s the new name of John Allen’s weekly web column – since he’s not going to be full-time in Rome anymore – this week’s column focuses, of course, primarily on the Middle East.

The White House believes that simply freezing things in place now would allow Hezbollah time to regroup, all but ensuring that any truce would be temporary, and that the all-too-familiar cycle of terrorist attacks followed by Israeli responses would continue. Opposition from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice blocked a call for a cease-fire in Rome; she argued the situation cannot return to the status quo ante.

Catholic leaders, on the other hand, have argued that no lasting peace can emerge from violence, and therefore the first order of business must be to prevent further bloodshed. Calls for an immediate cease-fire have come from the Vatican’s top diplomat, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, and from Wenski in the name of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Policy.

Wenski elaborated on his position in the NCR interview, insisting that "the more people who are killed, the more the fighting escalates, the more infrastructure is destroyed, the more difficult it becomes for all sides to find common ground to negotiate."

"That’s why the cease-fire is so important," Wenski said. "It would allow us to take a deep breath, to let reason direct policy rather than reactions of anger to hurts old or new."

The full text of the Wenski interview, which is helpful…and kind of a first I think, because Allen gets Wenski to talk about the exact nature of the bishops’ statement and the way Catholics should receive it. I can’t recall any bishop speaking forthrightly about such things in regard to any USCCB-generated document.

Whom does your July 17 statement speak for?

It’s the Committee on International Policy. We try to follow a very strict policy with this sort of statement …the best that bureaucracy can create! When a statement is issued under my signature, it’s been carefully vetted by different policy people within the conference, by staff, by the president of the conference and by the general secretary. In this case, we also consulted the papal nuncio, though it wasn’t because we had to. Archbishop [Pietro] Sambi was based in the Holy Land, so we ran it by him to ask if there were any nuances he felt could be sharpened. We also consulted Catholic Relief Services, who have people in the Middle East. In other words, this isn’t just me mouthing off. It’s a statement of a standing committee of the bishops’ conference, and we can be sure the bishops will stand behind it.

What kind of authority does the statement have? Are Catholics obliged to accept it?
This isn’t something that’s going to be added as an appendix to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It does not bind the consciences of American Catholics, but it helps them to form their consciences. Many Americans are troubled by the situation in the Middle East, and are looking for their shepherds to say something. Of course, there will be people who don’t agree with us. Some may say that we’re just trying to “bash Bush” and so on. Actually, I suspect that sometimes his cheerleaders get more upset than he does. We’re not trying to bash anybody, we just want to contribute to the debate.

So Catholics are free to disagree?

I don’t know if they’re free to say, for example, ‘Israel should bomb Lebanon back to the Stone Age.’ I don’t see how they can find any comfort for that view. The Catechism doesn’t say anything about bombing back to the Stone Age.

So the burden is on them to show how a different conclusion would flow from the teaching of the church?

Yes, that’s right. Our statement also called upon the United States to exercise greater leadership, and there might be some Catholics who are isolationists who might not welcome that, but I don’t think they can find much support for that.

I know this is a very difficult situation, and it’s easy for me in Orlando to write and say things. But we also have to remember that there are patriarchs and a cardinal in Lebanon who are dealing with this on the ground; it’s very tough for them.